“You here?” he exclaimed, staring in wonder at the intruder, as the latter grasped his hand in an iron gripe, and began to talk to him familiarly.
“Wal, yas,” answered the Yankee, with a huge grin; “I calkilate this is me, and ef it is me I’m here. As Tabitha Simpson used tew say—”
“How came you here?” demanded McCabe, uneasily.
“Now I consider that a leetle tew steep, mister,” declared the clock-peddler, gravely. “I’m Jonathan Boggs, all the way from Maine, and I’m ’customed tew dewin’ jest as I darn please when I’m tew hum, and I guess I mought venture tew foller up the rule out in these diggin’s. When mother told me as how I shouldn’t go tew a corn-shuckin’ one night, I swore I’d dew as I pleased about it, and I did—but I tuck the headache, though, and concluded to stay hum. When I robbed neighbor Green’s hen-roost, I found it convenient to slope, and I sloped, ’thout axin’ the advice or opinion of anybody; and you may tear every brass button off o’ my coat ef I go back till they promise to let me alone. How came me here? did you ask? I swan tew man—”
“Stop!” cried McCabe. “Tell me, how long have you been here?”
“’Bout five feet ten, ’cordin’ tew last measure; but maybe I am longer ’n that now, seein’ I’ve growed some since I left Maine.”
“No, no!” said the other, impatiently; “you misunderstood me. What length of time have you been here?”
“Been where?”
“Why, here, in the vicinity—this spot?”